Kurōbā Tokyo Ghoul
by Remona Arshu
Summary: In Tokyo, there are beings known as ghouls living among human beings. A small coffee shop is well known as a gathering place and a safe haven for the ghouls, though there is the occasional human customer. Nearby however, there is a flower shop named after a weed that is run by a pair of ghouls... and their new human employee.
1. Kurōbā

Natsuki watching the news with a rather interested look on her face. Today's report was focused on a ghoul who was a binge eater… consuming body after body, seemingly having an insatiable appetite. It was interesting, and she wondered faintly what could drive anyone to consume so much. A human eating too much food, or a ghoul eating too many bodies… Too much was still too much.

Her thoughts were interrupted but the sound of a snip from behind her and she turned to see her assistant Natalia snipping off the head of the head of a rose and her face turned bright red.

"Natalia! All you had to do was cut off the bad petal…. there's no need for it to lose the whole head!"

Natalia shrugged softly and tossed the 'head' of the rose to her boss.

"It had a mite on it. One little pest, and it could have expanded to infect the whole group. It probably would have. You know the phrase, one bad apple spoils the bunch right? It's best to kill one now, and save all the others."

Natsuki sighed as she looked back up at the screen. her brown hair kept out of her face by her goggles and she nodded.

"I guess so. But still…" She continued to watch the news report about the binge eater while Natalia moved to the front of the flower shop.

"I'm opening this place up." She said turning the sign on the front of the door.

"Hey… are you paying any attention Natsuki?" The red head stopped her foot at the woman watching the tv who just nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, hey how about this… you stay here, and I'm going to grab some coffee. How's that sound?"

The assistant deadpanned a bit as she looked at her boss with disappointment.

"...be sure to get the good stuff this time at least. And don't take too long."

She said with a sigh, though she knew she basically was going to be running the shop by herself today.

"I'll come back as fast as possible!" Natsuki said with a smile.

"I'll even bring back some food! Anything you want in particular?"

Elsewhere, a young girl with orange hair and purple eyes was taking a walk around the city. There was no class today, so she was out job hunting, hoping someone would hire her, despite her lack of experience. She was a good person, so she was hoping that she'd find a job soon, but it was getting tougher and tougher. Still, she was hopeful. She was walking past a coffee shop though when she saw Hideyoshi Nagachika walk out and she recognized him from school.

She gave him a little wave and he joined her on her walk around the city, with nothing better to do he figured he might as well.

"You're Sayuri right?" Hide asked as they walked down the sidewalk.

"Yeah, Sayuri Koizumi. We have our calculus class together." She said thinking about it.

"You sit in the back row with your friend right? Kaneki Ken."

"Wow, you remember things like that?" Hide said surprised as they crossed the street.

"I was actually just hanging out with him, but he's trying to get a date so I figured should get out of his way incase she ended up being more into me than into him." He laughed a bit and Sayuri couldn't help but laugh too. Then he suddenly stopped.

"Actually, I just remembered I have to do something. But it was nice talking to you. I'll see you in class tomorrow."

Sayuri nodded waving to him and still walking and as she turned, she smacked into a woman with long brown hair, goggles and a weird looking green dress. They both kind of fell to the floor, but the taller woman caught herself just before her tailbone would have hit the concrete, though her coffee wasn't saveable, she managed to save her paperbag, while the other girl ended up groaning in pain.

"Ow ow o- Oh my gosh are you okay! I'm so sorry!" Sayuri flustered to get up and help the woman up, but found she was too slow, and instead the other woman offered her a hand.

"Hey, don't sweat it! Here let me help you up." She grabbed her hand and hoisted her to a standing position and the two brushed themselves off.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention," Sayuri said and Natsuki laughed.

"I noticed! You were all into that boy over there huh? Though to be honest, I was kind of distracted myself." She'd come out the back door for some reason, instead of the front… it was kind of odd, but Sayuri didn't think too much on it.

"I wasn't... I wasn't distracted by him I was just….you know! Thinking!" Her face got brighter and brighter red despite her attempts to deny that Hide was super cute.

"Thinking about what?" Natsuki asked deviously with a grin.

"I...well job hunting!" She said quickly trying to save herself some embarrassment, and the other woman's face lit up.

"Really? What's your name. I'm Natsuki Kimura."

"Sayuri Koizumi." She said hesitantly. "...what's that look for."

Natsuki pointed to the coffee she'd ended up spilling all over the street.

"How about you go into that lovely coffee shop and get three large coffees, and ask them to redo the drink order for Kurōbā, and I'll tell you about a great place you'd be able to work."

"I...okay. Sure." She felt bad for making the woman spill her coffee anyway, so she went into the coffee shop a bit nervously.

"Welcome!" She was greeted by the lovely scent of various kinds of coffee and she was kind of taken back. The waiters and waitresses seemed so nice too, she wasn't sure what to do and she forgot she was supposed to order coffee for a moment before a girl with blue hair approached her.

"Is there something I can help you with?"

"Oh...right! I ran into a woman outside and made her spill her coffee so… I have to buy her more. She said to ask for the Kurōbā drink order? I guess she gets special coffee or something…"

The old man behind the counter nodded knowingly.

"Oh, you ran into Natsuki. You're right, she likes her coffee a certain way. I'll whip it up for you. Would you like some as well?"

"I'd love some actually! I love coffee, and this place smells fantastic." She said cheerfully and she took a seat over by the counter. She looked toward the tv to watch some news while she waited for the coffee to be made. It was a repeat of the report earlier, regarding the binge eating ghoul and she sighed softly.

"It's kind of sad."

"Hmm?" The old man looked to her curiously as she watched the TV.

"A ghoul like that will attract lots of attention right? Just like when a human goes crazy in a different country, everyone focuses on that country and says that it's bad." The girl with the blue hair looked up curiously.

"If a ghoul goes binge-eating, then everyones going dislike ghouls more than they normally do. It's not fair."

She didn't notice the girl with purple hair eyeing her from across the room, but she then returned to talking to Kaneki, who Sayuri hadn't even noticed when she came in the shop because she was so overwhelmed by the gorgeous smell of the place.

She was brought out of her thoughts when the old man handed her the tray of coffee, now holding three cups instead of two.

"Here you go miss."

She went to pull out her wallet but he waved a dismissive hand.

"It's on the house. Don't worry about it, just be careful." He smiled sweetly and she nodded happily.

"Oh...alright thank you!"

She quickly went out to meet with Natsuki again.

The woman was standing there rather impatiently and sighed a bit

"There you are. I was worried you'd been eaten or something."

"Hahaha, I didn't take that long did I?" Sayuri smiled brightly as she offered her the coffee, but Natsuki shrugged.

"Nah, you can carry it for me. You're job hunting right? Come with me. I own a flower shop you might be interested in working for."

Sayuri perked up a bit. "Really? That sounds great! I've never taken care of flowers or anything though, so I hope I don't kill anything…"

Though really, how hard could it be to take care of flowers? Water them, help them grow a bit… it'd be fine.

"Well, you won't be taking care of any of the actual flowers. Some of them are rather exoctic, so I don't think it'd be a good idea for you to mess with them right away… but, you get an even more important job! Should you choose to accept. You can work the front desk, greet the customers, and collect all the money you can!" Natsuki seemed to be particularly excited about the collecting the money part...which made sense. Why else would you run a shop?

The two arrived at Kurōbā and Sayuri looked up at the boutique in a bit of awe. It was a nice quality shop, not to big, not to small, and it smelled fantastic. As they walked in Sayuri set the coffee down on the counter and kind of walked around in awe, looking at all the flowers. Natalia stood behind the counter with the most unamused face ever.

"Natsuki, you went out to find coffee and food… what is this girl doing here?"

"Oh well, you know you were complaining about how you never get any time off. I figured maybe we should hire a part-timer."

Natalia's look of irritation seemed to only grow and Sayuri looked around eagerly at everything in the room.

"So you brought a…"

"Oh hey, what are these flowers? I've never seen them before."

Natsuki turned and saw Sayuri looking at the bunch of clovers that she grew and she smiled.

"Those are weeds." She said casually. "It's called a clover."

"It's so pretty! Why is it a weed though? It's just as pretty as any other flower."

Natalia looked surprised. That wasn't exactly the answer she was expecting and she raised an eyebrow to Natsuki.

"Because it kills the flowers. If you grow it together with them, the flowers won't get enough nutrients and die."

"Oh. Well that still doesn't make it a weed! Maybe it just needs to find the right flowers to grow with!"

Natsuki nodded and then pat her on the back.

"Maybe you're right. So, if you want to work here, we can spend today training you, if you don't have any other plans. How does that sound?"

Sayuri smiled brightly. "That sounds great!"

Natalia whispered under her breath to herself behind the counter.

"I guess we'll find out if a flower can really grow among the weeds…"

"They're nothing but monsters." A man said to another, as he at his food with a coworker.

He was speaking particularly loudly, and occasionally he glanced towards a woman who was sitting nearby. She had long unruly and wavy purple hair, with brown eyes and a darker complexion than most. She wasn't a local, but no one could really tell exactly where she was from. The other man tried to silence his coworker gently.

"Hey, watch it now, that's the woman who researches ghoul behavior! " But this was apparently a ruse because then then he smiled broadly. "You don't want her to give you a stern talking to, do you?" The two laughed and she just got up and left, but she did comment on something as she walked passed the two of them.

"I wonder if what people eat is what makes them them a monster, or just how they act. In that case, I'm surrounded."

In truth though, she couldn't fight back much against their bitter attitudes. She wasn't permitted to carry a firearm... she was just just a psychologist after all. A ghoul psychologist, to be specific. She was the first person who'd thought to try and break down ghoul psychology, and there were a few others who did the same… but it wasn't quite the same. What they were doing was more like profiling. They were studying ghouls only to try and figure out how to kill them more efficiently, while she was more focused on trying to actually get to know them. Ghouls could have children too. They had the same range of emotions that humans did… so why was everyone so quick to dismiss them as monsters when they were clearly people?

She left and headed up to see her boss, who didn't seem all that thrilled when she came in, despite having requested her to come in the first place.

"Yes sir, you've asked for me?"

"Seven, what the hell do you think you're doing?" He said growling at her a bit as he held up a piece of paper. It was a form she'd filled out last week. She was requesting to be transferred to the the Ghoul containment facility, so that she might have a chance to meet with and study some ghouls more personally, granted, they were dangerous ghouls, but they were ghouls, and she would have a chance to speak with them there… hopefully. As it was, it was hard for her to get ahold of a ghoul and ask them personal life questions… How exactly did one walk up to someone and ask if they were a ghoul, and if they were, would they be able to answer a few questions? As it was, she only got to speak to ghouls where were recently captured and on their way to the exact containment center that she was asking to head to.

However, she wasn't a combatant...at all. So sending her to a building full of ghouls of all ranks didn't seem like a good idea...but then again, it might be better than her stirring up trouble every time a ghoul was captured…

"How do you even know about the ghoul containment facility? That kind of a place isn't exactly well known, even among your fellow CCG members."

She shrugged and adjusted herself in her seat a bit.

"I was guessing." She said honestly, and he just stared at her.

"I mean, you guys usually kill on sight. But occasionally I hear some ghouls are captured. So I figured...they must be somewhere, and that I wanted to go there."

He glared at you.

"You do know that there are SS rank ghouls there, right? They'll tear you to shreds in a second."

"If they get ahold of me, then that's not my fault. It just means the high and mighty investigators weren't doing a very good job. Ranks don't matter to me either. If a regular ghoul wants to kill me, they'll kill me. Weather an SS rank ghoul kills me better than others doesn't really matter."

She was determined to get into that containment center, and she was tired of being looked down on… so finally, he sighed and signed the paperwork.

"We'll have to get you some security clearance levels… it's going to take a bit before we can transfer you, so you have time to back out. Just Just don't do anything stupid, alright?" She nodded and perked up cheerfully.

"Yes sir! Thank you sir! You won't regret this!" She left his office feeling rather satisfied with herself and he rubbed rubbed his forehead when when she was out of earshot.

"I already am."


	2. Thistles

About a week had passed since Sayuri had started working at Kurōbā, and things were going well, so far. In honor of surviving her first week, Natsuki had brought her a cupcake to eat with a little candle in it like it was a birthday or something.

She presented it to her during the evening when they were closing up the shop.

"Tada!" She said cheerfully.

"Congratulations! Here's your survival cupcake."

Natsuki looked up curiously as Sayuri accepted the cupcake in glee.

"Oh! That looks gorgeous! Did you make it yourself?" She looked at it in awe, almost afraid to eat it because it was so pretty looking.

Natalia snorted at the idea of Natsuki cooking.

"Oh no. She definitely didn't make it. You should know by now, she's way too lazy for such things like that."

"Shut up or I'm docking your pay."

"All hail our great manager." Natalia said muttering a bit, and then she snipped a flower making Natsuki cringe.

Sayuri laughed happily.

"You guys are so funny," She said fondly as she licked some of the frosting off the cupcake, and then she thought for a moment.

"Something wrong?" Asked the manager as she took over counting out the money and sorting things out.

"Well, no, I just kind of wish you'd gotten an actual cake so we could all share it together. I haven't gotten to have a meal with you two yet because of how you have the lunch schedule set up."

Another snip of a flower head, though this wasn't intended apparently as Natalia let a cuss word slip through her teeth.

Natsuki whacked on on the back of the head and the regarded her employee and nodded.

"True. Maybe I'll rearrange things so we can all go eat together sometime. Maybe we'll take a day off or something… though to be honest. It's only been a week. Make it to a month and I'll get you a big cake… how does that sound?"

Sayuri started to respond, but then she heard the sound of the bell as someone came into the shop.

"Hello?"

A young man entered the shop. He had black hair and looked rather well dressed, like he was planning on going somewhere today. Sayuri recognized him from school and instantly perked up.

"Oh hello! Good afternoon Kaneki-san!"

He was surprised and then smiled.

"Mmm? Hello. You're… Sayuri right? You're one of Hide's friends right? I didn't know you worked here."

Sayuri's face turned bright red. She was one of Hide's friends now? Maybe she should ask him if he was interested in hanging out one day or something, maybe they could get some coffee from that shop that Natsuki was always sending her off too and… she was so lost in thought she forgot that Kaneki was there. Luckily, Natsuki was there to save the day.

"Well, then, now that she's lost in lala land," she said elbowing her assistant softly.

"Is there something I can help you with?"

Kaneki nodded looking around at all of the flowers.

"Yeah, I'm about to go on a date with this girl I met, Rize. I was hoping to bring her some flowers, but I'm not sure what to pick for a first date…" He muttered a bit.

"Roses would be too much I think so… do you have any reccomendations?"

As he talked with Natsuki who showed him a few flowers to choose from, Natalia stood rigid watching with almost a sense of… anger. She clenched her fist, and then let it go when Sayuri tapped her shoulder softly.

"Are you okay, Miss Natalia?"

She was such a cheerful, happy girl. It made her sick sometimes.

"I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"Because you look like you want to shoot someone."

That… wasn't the answer she was expecting and the redhead was taken back a bit… but then she smiled.

"Heh… you might say that. I just remembered something is all."

She sighed as she listened in on the conversation.

"And these are called Bachelor's Buttons." She said, indicating toward some lovely blue flowers. They seemed like they were composed of a bunch of smaller blue trumpet shaped flower all gathered together into one big round ball.

"They represent anticipation." She said with a cheerful smile.

"That'd be appropriate for a first date? You're both excited to hang out and get to know each other, right?"

Kaneki nodded and he looked at them curiously.

"Those are good. I wish they were purple though, I think that's her favorite color."

Natalia snorted softly and when he turned to look at her she pretended to be busy tending to a plant.

"Hmm, they do come in purple, but I'm afraid I only have blue ones in stock right now."

He nodded but then pointed towards a plant growing off to the side.

Next to the clovers, there was a pot with some purple spiky looking flowers.

"Then what are those that you're growing over there?"

"Oh. Those are just some weeds. It's called a Thistle."

Kaneki nodded as Natalia came over and offered him a bouquet of the Bachelor Buttons.

He took it and nodded. "Ah. I guess she'd be upset if I gave her weeds. Anyway...thanks." He handed Natalia the payment and she went to put it in the drawer as he left.

Sayuri looked at Natsuki curiously.

"So tell me about the thistles."

Sayuri was walking home carrying a bag of groceries with her first bit of a paycheck, and she was thinking about all sorts of things from Hide to weeds to what she was going to have for dinner. She was lost in thought, so she didn't realize she was going the wrong way, and accidentally went down a dark path instead of the one towards her apartment.

'The thistle is a troublesome weed, and though it looks pretty, it is covered in spikes and thorns, all over.'

Sayuri thought she heard someone shouting, and she started to pick up her pace, choosing to see what was going on instead of running away.

'Because of the thistles rampant growth, it quickly overcomes any nearby plants, preventing them from getting much needed sunlight, and it can even hurt animals who graze them, with some of the plants even being poisonous."

Sayuri rushed closer to the sounds of someone screaming, the sound being oddly familiar, and she panicked. What would she do when she got there? What could she do to help someone if they were in danger?

'I suppose, all things are crushed under the weight of the thistle.'

Sayuri stopped running. She saw it.

Rize, held Kaneki up with a tentacle coming out of her back, and she was killing him. She had a huge hole through his stomach, and he hug limplly. He was dead… he had to be dead.

Rize heard the sound of the girl approaching and she turned to look at her before her head snapped up, hearing the sound of something snapping, and all at once, Kaneki was thrown as Rize was crushed but a steel beam that suddenly gave way from above.

Sayuri saw someone high above them, but she didn't get to see anything else before someone covered her eyes to keep her from looking any further at the bodies of Kaneki and Rize.

Sayuri didn't realize she'd screamed, or how much she was shaking.

"Shh…" Natsuki whispered softly, hugging the girl to herself.

"Tell me… do you think a flower can live among weeds?"

The was a sharp loud noise as Natalia rushed by and went to pursue whoever had just crushed Rize with a beam, but Sayuri couldn't see anything.

"I...think a weed, is the same as a flower, whose purpose hasn't been discovered yet..." She said shakingly.

"N-natsuki we need to call the ambulance they're… they might still be okay!"

She didn't get to say anything else, as she felt a quick hit to her neck, and she collapsed into the womans arms.

"Whoever it was got away." Natalia said rushing back up to her manager, a pair of wings extending from her back. The way they were shaped, they almost looked like flower petals.

"Call the ambulance, tell them to come here, but then we need to get out of here."

Natsuki held her assistant softly in her arms.

"I'll take the flower here home."


End file.
